One of the “godfathers” of artificial intelligence has attacked a multibillion-dollar race to develop the cutting-edge technology, saying the latest models are displaying dangerous characteristics such as lying to users.

Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian academic whose work has informed techniques used by top AI groups such as OpenAI and Google, said: “There’s unfortunately a very competitive race between the leading labs, which pushes them towards focusing on capability to make the AI more and more intelligent, but not necessarily put enough emphasis and investment on research on safety.”

The Turing Award winner issued his warning in an interview with the Financial Times, while launching a new non-profit called LawZero. He said the group would focus on building safer systems, vowing to “insulate our research from those commercial pressures.”

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WWDC might technically be a developer conference, but the rest of us non-devs still tune in anyway. That’s because Apple isn’t just sharing updates that are relevant to software makers, but sweeping OS changes that anyone with an Apple device can appreciate.

WWDC 2025 is nearly here. With it, Apple will likely announce the latest updates to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and more, and will probably drop some new details about Apple Intelligence. If you’re interested in keeping up with the latest Apple news, here’s how to watch.

How to watch WWDC 2025

Apple’s 2025 WWDC event kicks of June 9. While WWDC technically spans the entire week, most of us care about the first day. That’s when Apple gives its keynote address, which contains the vast majority of WWDC news you’re expecting to hear. As it happens, the rest of the week is actually made up of events and news for developers. Go figure.

Apple’s big kickoff starts at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) on Monday, June 9. While the event used to be in-person, Apple has stuck with prerecorded announcements since COVID. That works for delivering news and showcasing features without the worry that something goes wrong during a live demo, but it also means you need to take what’s being announced with a grain of salt. Last year, Apple announced a bunch of AI-powered Siri features that were supposedly going to launch with iOS 18, but it turned out that those features were in a prototype phase. (They still haven’t launched.) While you should expect most of the features for “iOS 26” to actually roll out with the new update, don’t be surprised if some don’t make the cut.

If you weren’t invited to Cupertino to watch the prerecorded event from the Steve Jobs theater, you can still check it out from the comfort of your home—or wherever you have an internet connection. Apple will be streaming from its website, as well as its official YouTube channel. That YouTube video is live now, if you want to queue it up ahead of the presentation:

Summer Game Fest week just got even busier. Sony is throwing its own party on Wednesday, June 5 at 5PM in the form of a State of Play. The stream will showcase “must-play” PS5 games from developers based around the world and you can watch it on on YouTube or Twitch. To make things even easier for you, you can watch it right here by clicking the big red button above when the time is right. (English subtitled and Japanese versions of the State of Play will be available too.)

The State of Play will run for over 40 minutes, so there should be a bunch of games included. Sony hasn’t given any hints as to what it will show off as yet, but it’ll surely be worth checking out the stream. We learned about some interesting projects in the last State of Play, such as the very tasty-sounding Soros from Returnal studio Housemarque. There’s always a chance that Sony will show up at Summer Game Fest Live on Friday, June 6, to reveal something else off.

With this State of Play, Sony is padding out a packed SGF schedule that includes what is routinely Xbox’s biggest showcase of the year on Sunday, June 8. And then there’s also the little matter of the Nintendo Switch 2’s arrival on June 5. It’s shaping up to be a fun, if very busy, week.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/how-to-watch-sonys-state-of-play-at-summer-game-fest-143012779.html?src=rss

Here’s an all-too-familiar scenario for me: I’m listening to music using my phone when, for some reason, my headphones connect to my sleeping MacBook. The music stops.

I bet you’ve run into some version of this problem—it’s frustratingly common, plus you’re reading an article about how to solve it. And here’s your solution: a free, open source application called Bluesnooze. This simple tool does one thing: It turns off your Bluetooth when your Mac goes to sleep, and turns it back on when your Mac wakes up. This stops your computer from taking over your headphones when you don’t want it to.

I’ve been testing it out for a few days and it works reliably. There are some downsides—using this program means that when your Mac does wake up, that you’ll need to wait a few seconds before you can use your Bluetooth devices, like a mouse, keyboard, or speakers. For me, this pause lasted only a few seconds—a brief enough interval that I barely noticed it—but it’s worth keeping in mind.

The bigger downside is that the app also breaks a few features that you might use regularly, including “Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac” and certain “Find My Mac” abilities. If you’re constantly annoyed by your MacBook cutting off audio, though, you might be able to live with these compromises.

Credit: Justin Pot

Bluesnooze runs from the menu bar and offers just one option: whether you want it to run automatically at login or not. If you don’t like clutter in your menu bar, you can also optionally disable the menu bar icon using a command found on the download page. This will free up space on your menu bar, but make it hard to know whether the application is running or not. For this reason, I also recommend you look into using an app to clean up your Mac’s menu bar instead of removing the icon altogether.

Bluesnooze isn’t a particularly complicated application, granted, but it solves a very specific problem. Check it out if you’ve been considering storing your MacBook in a Faraday cage to prevent it from stealing control of your AirPods when you don’t want it to.

Live-animal markets across Southeast Asia continue operating as natural laboratories for deadly pathogens despite warnings from public health experts about their role in disease transmission, according to new research published in Nature.

Scientists studying markets like Jakarta’s Jatinegara found that coronavirus detection rates in trafficked animals increase dramatically along supply chains, with rats sold at Vietnamese markets testing positive at rates ten times higher than those caught in fields. Pangolins confiscated in Vietnam showed a seven-fold increase in coronavirus infections compared to animals seized earlier in the smuggling process.

The research comes as political headwinds have severely reduced funding for pandemic preparedness, with the Trump administration terminating a $125-million disease monitoring program and cutting all USAID functions. Scientists report growing reluctance from government officials to authorize publication of pathogen discoveries, fearing stigma and trade restrictions, while wildlife traders increasingly avoid participating in studies that could reveal new health risks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When tried out Mario Kart World at April’s Switch 2 premiere hands-on event, the short demos focused on more-or-less standard races in the game’s Grand Prix and Knockout modes. So when Nintendo invited us back for more time previewing the near-final version of the game before the Switch 2’s release, we decided to focus most of our time on the game’s mysterious (and previously teased) “Free Roam” mode.

We’re glad we did, because the mode feels like the hidden gem of Mario Kart World and maybe of the Switch 2 launch as a whole. Combining elements of games like Diddy Kong Racing, Forza Horizon, and even the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, Free Roam provides a unique mixture of racing challenges, exploration, and collectibles that should keep new Switch 2 owners busy for a while.

Switch hunt

Surprisingly, Free Roam mode isn’t actually listed as one of the main options when you launch a new game of Mario Kart World. Instead, a tiny note in the corner of the screen tells you to hit the plus button to get dropped into a completely untimed and free-wheeling version of the vast Mario Kart World map.

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It’s been textbook knowledge for over a century that our Milky Way galaxy is doomed to collide with another large spiral galaxy, Andromeda, in the next five billion years and merge into one even bigger galaxy. But a fresh analysis published in the journal Nature Astronomy is casting that longstanding narrative in a more uncertain light. The authors conclude that the likelihood of this collision and merger is closer to the odds of a coin flip, with a roughly 50 percent probability that the two galaxies will avoid such an event during the next ten billion years.

Both the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies (M31) are part of what’s known as the Local Group (LG), which also hosts other smaller galaxies (some not yet discovered) as well as dark matter (per the prevailing standard cosmological model). Both already have remnants of past mergers and interactions with other galaxies, according to the authors.

“Predicting future mergers requires knowledge about the present coordinates, velocities, and masses of the systems partaking in the interaction,” the authors wrote. That involves not just the gravitational force between them but also dynamical friction. It’s the latter that dominates when galaxies are headed toward a merger, since it causes galactic orbits to decay.

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Nothing plans to launch the Phone 3, its first proper flagship, on July 1, the company announced today. We already knew the phone was coming this summer, thanks to a teaser Nothing shared during last month’s The Android Show I/O Edition. During the segment, Nothing CEO Carl Pei said the new device will cost around £800 ($1080), which would easily make it the most expensive handset the company has produced to date. Pei also said Nothing plans to go “all-in” on Phone 3 with “premium materials, major performance upgrades and software that really levels things up.” 

It will be interesting to see how Nothing builds on the Phone 3a and 3a Pro (pictured above), the two mid-range handsets the company released earlier this year. I reviewed both phones for Engadget, and felt they offered great value for the asking price of $379 and $459. I’m also curious to see if Nothing decides to make a proper push into the US market. While you can buy the company’s phones stateside, they don’t have robust carrier support. In any case, we’ll find out more about the new Phone 3 next month.   

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-nothing-phone-3-arrives-in-july-134121908.html?src=rss

You can no longer use Google Wallet to pay with your PayPal account in the US. As Android Authority has reported, Google has updated the Wallet Help page to state that the integration will be ending on June 13. Your linked PayPal account can no longer be used to pay for anything, and it will automatically be deleted from the digital wallet application. To be able to continue paying online with the app, including recurring payments for subscriptions, you’d have to add at least one card if you haven’t yet. 

While it’s no longer possible to link a PayPal account to Wallet, it’ll still work as intended if you attach a PayPal-branded debit card to the app, which will also let you spend your Paypal balance. It’s just the account integration itself that will no longer work. That said, the change seems to only affect users in the US. In Germany, where the option to link PayPal accounts to Wallet is also available, PayPal will continue supporting the integration. 

Google Wallet lets you store cards for payment online and for tap-to-pay services, as well as documents that include digital passports, state IDs, driver’s licenses, virtual car keys and flight information. Last year, Google shut down its standalone Pay app in favor of Wallet in order to simplify its payment options. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-wallets-paypal-integration-is-ending-this-june-133045777.html?src=rss

I remember the moment I reached for the knife: I was attempting to divide a clump of irises with rhizomes so thick that my shovel refused to cut through them.  I thought to myself, “a serrated knife would cut right through these”—and after a moment of reflection, couldn’t come up with a reason not to do precisely that. And just like that, a bread knife that saw no action in the kitchen became one of my most valued garden tools.

The key to being efficient in the garden is to use the right tools for the job, and there’s no rule that says those tools have to come from the garden center. If you identify a non-traditional tool that can do the job, don’t be afraid to claim it from whatever part of the house it usually lives in and reallocate it to your garden. 

Serrated knives

When your shovel can’t get through roots, and a hori hori is too short, it’s time to take out a long bread knife. What I like most about using a bread knife is that I can stick it right into the ground and use it like a saw on resistant root balls, rhizomes or roots.  As long as you wipe off the knife when you’re done with it, it shouldn’t rust, and should remain a trusted tool in the yard. 

PVC pipe

PVC pipe being used as a dibbler.
Credit: Amanda Blum

A traditional dibbler is a tool you use to make indentations in the soil, to place seeds in. Turns out, a stick of PVC pipe does roughly the same thing. And if you misplace a piece of PVC in the yard, it won’t drive you crazy the way it does when I misplace my dibbler. In fact, PVC is more effective than a dibbler when it comes time to plant leeks, which you dig up and replant every few months so that more of the stem is blanched underground. When you replant them, you want a hold that’s very narrow and 10 inches deep—and PVC gets the job done. 

But PVC can do more. It’s the perfect material for building hoops for a low tunnel over your beds, and because of all the connectors and fittings for PVC, you could even build a small greenhouse out of it.

Electric toothbrush 

While you’re not going to find a method for pollination better than good ol’ bees, there are instances where your plants are going to need an assist. Sometimes, you don’t have a lot of pollinators around, and sometimes you’re gardening indoors. In those cases, you need an electric toothbrush, or, uh, anything else that vibrates.  Once the plant has blossoms, and those blossoms are open, you hold the vibrating tool against it, and you will see the air fill with pollen, like a yellow cloud. Some of that pollen will land on other flowers and pollinate. I’ve found this method wildly effective on my indoor gardens.

Copper pennies

Copper pennies being used as a slug shield.
Credit: Amanda Blum

With pennies about to be decommissioned by the US Mint, here’s another way to use up the ones you have. If they were made before 1982, they’re made of copper, and if there’s one thing slugs hate, it’s copper. It gives slugs a shock, and they usually will not cross it. Sure, you could buy copper tape—or you can just glue copper pennies around your raised beds. I like epoxy for this, rather than hot glue, since hot glue is just going to melt again in the heat. 

Wire trash cans

Wire trash can as plant cage.
Credit: Amanda Blum

Perhaps you don’t have chickens who want to devour all your plants and are instead just dealing with the average birds, raccoons, rats, and squirrels. In any case, a wire trash can serve as an excellent cage for your plants, keeping animals out while the plant gets big enough to stand on its own. The dollar store is an excellent place to locate these gems, and when you do, grab a bunch of them. 

Five-gallon buckets and milk crates

5 gallon buckets being used for weed collection
Credit: Amanda Blum

Look, I’m convinced five gallon buckets—the cheap ones you get at Home Depot—are the unsung heroes of garden work. There’s always eight to 10 of them kicking around my yard. When I’m weeding, I look for the closest bucket to toss them in. When I get into a tight squeeze where my wheelbarrow can’t reach, a bucket is great for scooping and dumping. It’s easy to toss a bunch of buckets in the back of the car if I’m running to get sand or soil for the garden, or if I’m picking up a freebie plant from a neighbor that needs something to ride in until I plant it. Fill a bucket with water and dunk entire plants in that have become hydrophobic. You can use buckets to mix soil amendments. Buckets can make a decent planter, too, if you drill holes in them. I’ve seen driveway gardens full of tomatoes and peppers in five-gallon buckets. 

In a similar vein, milk crates are invaluable for garden storage, since water can’t pool in them. You can see everything stored in them at a glance, and they stack. Being able to stack things in a garden is an equivalent to discovering a dress has pockets: priceless. But the best use of milk crates is to use them for planting bulbs. Flower farmers often use the crates that bulbs are shipped in (which look like milk crates) for planting that year’s bulbs, and once the crates are filled with soil and start flowering, you won’t notice the crate.

Cardboard

Cardboard sheet mulching.
Credit: Amanda Blum

In my neighborhood, large cardboard rarely makes it to the recycling station. It is quickly claimed for gardening, because clean tape- and paint-free cardboard is the basis for sheet mulching. If you want to kill your grass, tamp down weeds, and/or create walkways in your garden, you start with a layer of cardboard. It will smother whatever is under it, and as the cardboard decomposes, add nitrogen to the soil. In a similar vein, cardboard can be the brown in your composting bin, which should be balanced with the green (grass clippings, leaves, stems, etc). 

You can also use cardboard in germination. Some seeds, like carrots, are a real bugger to germinate, and need consistent moisture, and don’t much like the sun at this stage. A sheet of cardboard over your carrot seeds will keep the soil moist and ensure darkness. Lift the cardboard after a week or two and check the germination. Once you see seedlings, remove the cardboard. 

Scissors

Cutting sweet peas with a scissor.
Credit: Amanda Blum

I have every pair of pruners out there (I tend to lose them, somehow), but for some situations, nothing beats a pair of scissors. For delicate flowers like sweet peas, trying to get a pair of pruners between the growing vines will do more harm than good. I consistently find myself needing to cut twine while out and about in summer, and pruners rarely give a clean cut.